Kerala recorded 14 home births in the month of January alone, including the death of three of the newborns.
Last month, nearly two months after she gave birth at home at Chavakkad, a 37-year-old woman died following sepsis and multi-organ failure at Thrissur Medical College. Her infant had died within a few days of the birth.
These home births have been happening under the radar of the Health department, mostly out of choice and without medical or midwife supervision and with total disregard for maternal lives or the possible long-term gynaecological morbidities that women might suffer.
K. Pratibha, a medical officer attached to the Thanur community health centre at Malappuram, has now approached the High Court yet again, with an interim petition that the Health department is not taking any effective steps to stop the home births, nor was it conducting any awareness programmes to enlighten the public on the unexpected complications that can occur during child birth, which can endanger the lives of mothers and newborns.
Dr. Pratibha has been engaged in a lone legal battle since the last four years to get the authorities to issue clear guidelines on the conduct of home births and also for the court to regulate home births through adequate legal provisions and penalties.
